Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Michael Pollan has three books on the Amazon top 100, including the #2 slot. That's as mainstream as it gets!

@chichi

Have you tried other types of Penis? I hear that duck penis and cobra penis are both eaten (though as with beef, probably more for superstition than good flavor). And how does the beef penis compare to testicles (which I find to also be relatively bland and soft)?

@sailordave
meanwhile, I spent most of superbowl sunday slowing stewing on the couch surrounded by a bunch of dicks (just kidding, I love my friends. Sort of). I suppose it was inevitable that this thread would at some point devolve into penis jokes, right?

I think it's the turkey. Depending on if it was ground properly or not (IE, kept well chilled duirng the process, proper storage, and equipment), ground meat can squeeze out bits of protein-lade liquid that then firm up and suspend in the liquid. I don't know that there's an easy way to avoid it other than to shorten the cooking time, lower the heat, add the turkey close to the end, or just hope you have a better batch of turkey next time.

Salting the meat a day in advance and grinding it yourself will help the proteins bind together better, and might alleviate part of the problem, but maybe it's not worth the extra effort.

@hmw0029

Interesting. The Japanese version of the dish is very different from the Sichuan version. I grew up eating my mom's Japanese version, whichi is gloppier, and has far less chili oil in it, and doesn't use sichuan peppercorns, which in my opinion, are essential - you can't get the ma-la. The real sichuan stuff has a layer of it coating the top. Soooooo good.

The version he's making seems to be a kind of hybrid. It has a lot of cornstarch-thickened broth like the Japanese version, but he finishes it with a touch of chili oil and sichuan pepper. Looks delicious!

The best instructions he gives: "ingredients and measurements are important, but even more important is that you taste it yourself and check that it's good" (or something to that effect - my Japanese is far from perfect).

Thanks for the video!

Kenji

Mapo dofu is probably my all time favorite dish, and I"ve had the best version I've ever eaten at Fuloon restaurant in Malden, MA. I wrote a piece about it for the Globe last year, which you can find here. The recipe I adapted from the chef there is here. I's incredible!

It does, however, use semi-firm silken tofu, not the spongier kind. Essential for getting the texture right.

@resolutjc

Did you try these wings? You can't tell that there's baking powder on them - it's not a batter or even a dredging in the normal sense of the word. The coating is so thin you can't perceive it, other than its effect on the skin. They seem completely naturally crisp, like they do when you fry them.

I tested Alton's method vs. normal baked wings. I know he never says that the end result will be better than normal wings, and he's right - they're not. They also don't release much fat when you steam them - a teaspoon per dozen wings or so, which does nothing to help with the smoking problem, which, in my opinion, was greatly exaggerated on that episode of Good Eats. Besides, there are simpler solutions if you don't like smoke - cover the bottom of your pan with a piece of crinkled, perforated aluminum foil.

If you read the article, you'll see that I did try basting with butter and with oil, with no great effect. Have you tried tasting a chicken basted with butter side by side with one that's not basted? I did pretty extensive testing of that when I was working on a crisp-skin roast chicken recipe a couple years ago, and found the opposite to be the case - basting with butter adds moisture (depending on your butter, it's about 10-14% water), which softens the skin rather than crisps it. I'm not saying you can't get crispy skin with butter, just that it will not be as crisp as without.

Definitely more work can always be done on any recipe, which for me, is one of the things that makes cooking great. There's always more to explore and more to learn.

Ok - take back my statement. It's possible to learn from books, just much much much much harder, to the point where I doubt that 1 in 10 people could learn in a lifetime of solely book-learning the same as the average person could learn with a month of real time spent in the kitchen with a good cook.

Don't get me wrong - both are necessary. I learnt many things about theory, technique, and science that I never would have learned in a professional kitchen, let alone learned correctly. But without good time spent in the kitchen learning how to taste things, how to handle food, handle a knife, handle heat, it's impossible to apply the things that you learn in books to the real world.

@cakespy

I'm allergic to avocado!

At least on its own, when raw. Same thing for a few other vegetables (if I'm not careful washing my hands/face after peeling potatoes and carrots I get big red bumps wherever the juice was).

The funny thing is, if you mash it up and mix it with an acid, it's ok (to a degree). Same thing with apples and pears and stone fruit. I know one other person who has the same reaction.

"Sweet guacamole, Batman! What's in this frosting?"

Nice comparison. Love the calipers too.

I was skeptical about it, but now I've definitely got to try it for myself.Was the line as bad at the Yonkers location, or did having two ovens help? The last four times I've been through New Haven, I've driven down Wooster street then kept driving right on by to Modern when I saw the line scooting way out the front door. It'd be nice to know that there's a closer, line-free option available...

@tjtoed

Funny you ask - I just baked off a batch that I had in the fridge for a full 36 hours. Worked fine. And @bundito - I fried some of that batch as well, and it also works. Didn't do side by side with plain fried, but they seemed to be better than normal fried wings. Great either way.

KEnji

@katieineurope

have a thermometer? As long as it's below 40 degrees or so, you should be fine. I actually left some wings out on my deck overnight because I had to do several batches of wings at once and there's no room in my fridge for 12 pounds of drying wings...

@sbroadway

Ah, but interesting! If you go down to the comments section of Nick's blog, one of the top commenters says that she tried it with Buffalo wings for her superbowl party!

@Lex Kap

hmm... I don't think I have quite the figure that that girl does. I'll have to find a men's version somewhere.